Trail of Blood

Two parallel serial murder cases 75 years apart drive former forensic scientist Black's compelling if formulaic third crime thriller starring Cleveland forensic scientist Theresa MacLean (after Evidence of Murder). When a mummified corpse turns up in an abandoned warehouse, the police believe the body to be a victim of the 1930s Torso Killer, the real-life perpetrator of Cleveland's first and still unsolved string of gruesome dismemberments. Then a copycat killer strikes. Black shifts between Theresa's Nancy Drewesque reason-defying chase of the present-day killer and the Depression-era pursuit of the original Torso Killer by James Miller, the honest Cleveland cop whose tragic death comes to obsess Theresa. On the personal front, the divorced, recently empty-nested Theresa, edgily nearing 40 a year after her fiancé's death, feels shaky about Chris Cavanaugh, a handsome hostage negotiator. Amid facile stereotypes and unconvincing plot twists, the fast-paced action hurtles to a breathless conclusion. (Sept.)